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Anchored by Jake Tapper, The Lead airs at 4 p.m. ET on CNN.
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pop lead
Movie trailers compete for glory, one comes out victorious
Many movie goers often talk through previews, but those promos are a big deal, big enough to get their own version of the Oscars.
In 70 categories and with a shiny trailer statue, movie previews were recognized Friday night at "The Golden Trailer Awards" in Hollywood. "Iron Man 3" took home the prize for summer 2013 blockbuster trailer. The promo for "Les Misérables" won the award for - what else - best music. And the award for best voice over went to the film "John Dies At The End."
"It really helps to have big bombastic music, it really helps to show the audience something that it looks like they've seen before and liked," said Sam Thielman, staff writer at Adweek. And "it's great to have a super hero attached to it."
The ads may only last a minute or so, but they can make or break a two-hour feature. In the case of "Iron Man 3", the mission was accomplished in historic fashion. The movie dominated the box office, raking it more than $175 million in ticket sales, making it the second biggest opening in Hollywood history, just behind another comic book blockbuster "The Avengers."
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money lead
YouTube considers launching pay-per-view model
YouTube may have found a way to put a price tag on watching a guy freak out over a double rainbow. The website is reportedly getting ready to launch new premium channels to compete with services like Hulu and Netflix.
According to a report in the Financial Times, YouTube could launch a pay-per-view model for some of its channels as early as this week, with subscriptions starting at $1.99/month.
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world lead
Syria: More than just a civil war?
Reported Israeli airstrikes into Syria over the weekend killed 42 Syrian soldiers, according to an opposition group. The strikes appear to be aimed at preventing weapons from being transferred to the militant group Hezbollah, sources tell CNN's Barbara Starr. While the Syrian government says these strikes "open the door" to retaliation, an Israeli general says that there are "no winds of war."
Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told "The Lead" on Friday, "If the Syrian regime tries to transfer chemical weapons, or what we call game changing weaponry, to terrorist organizations, particularly to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel will not remain passive."
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen, who is in Damascus, Syria, spoke with the country's deputy foreign minister.
"The Syrian regime is absolutely angry," with the Israeli airstrike, said Pleitgen. "What was hit is really the power center of the Syrian military." The strike hit a compound that housed units of the elite Republican Guard, research facilities, and a big weapons depot.
"They are threatening retaliation," said Pleitgen.
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politics lead
Democrats 'think they are going to lose' South Carolina special
All signs out of South Carolina point towards redemption for Mark Sanford, said USA Today's Washington editor Susan Page.
"You can tell the Democrats think that they are going to lose this," Page told CNN's Jake Tapper, "because they are starting to describe why it's a really good thing, if they do."
On election eve, Page pointed to Democratic strategists pining for Sanford to provide the kind of Todd Akin-like fodder that helped several statewide candidates protect vulnerable seats as a sure sign think they will come up wrong end when votes tallies come in from Columbia Tuesday. If he wins, the disgraced ex-Governor, rejected by his own party after lying, admitting to an affair, and allegedly getting caught trespassing on his ex-wife's property, will have capped one of the most unexpected political comebacks in recent years.
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national lead
3D gun printed and fired, congressman fights to regulate the weapon
Defense Distributed, an organization whose sole purpose was to create 3D gun printing and then share that technology with the public, uploaded a video of the successful printing and firing of a 3D gun Monday. It was a shot across the bow in a whole new battle on guns.
Back in March, Cody Wilson, head of Defense Distributed, told CNN's "The Lead," that he intended to have "a printable gun," by the end of April.
Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, is not celebrating this marriage of hi-tech and the right to bear plastic arms. In the wake of Defense Distributed's pursuit of printable 3D guns, Israel is pushing for a renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act.
The act says "you cannot manufacture or transport weapons that cannot be picked up by metal detectors," said Israel. "It was common sense when Bush signed the law in 2003, it is now urgent sense now that the 3D printers are actually manufacturing these weapons."
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